Accuse First, Ask Questions Never: Mainstreaming Anti-Semitism

The largest Swedish newspaper publishes an article accusing Israel of murdering Palestinians so it can sell their body parts. The largest Dutch newspaper publishes an article accusing Satan-worshipping Jews of creating swine flu and other diseases to murder large numbers of people. The newspaper of the British elite publishes an article by a well-known philosopher calling Israel a Nazi state.

How does the Swedish newspaper’s editor respond to complaints about this sort of thing? Jan Helin responds:

It’s deeply unpleasant and sad to see such a strong propaganda machine using centuries-old anti-Semitic images in an apparent attempt to get an obviously topical issue off the table.

But what is the “strong propaganda machine” that is really using anti-Semitic images to get “obviously topical” issues off the table?

The answer is not, as Helin would have it, an Israeli-Jewish propaganda machine. Since media coverage is so extremely anti-Israel — often breaking the rules of proper journalism to smite that country — it couldn’t be all that powerful.

The propaganda machine is that of the other side: Middle Eastern Arab nationalists and Islamists, or their European leftist allies. These forces produce a constant barrage of anti-Israel stories which make headlines and then are never proven to be accurate. During the last decade, there has not been a single proven case of any war crime by Israeli forces.

Yet how many millions of people are convinced otherwise by irresponsible and propagandistic media coverage?

Helin himself embodies this situation. The first question he should have asked: Are the facts in this story correct and are the claims reasonable? Instead, his response was to choose sides. The fact that both the article’s author and the editor who published it are anti-Israel activists should have made him wary regarding whether or not this story was a reasonable thing to publish.

Moreover, Helin’s justification for why the story is legitimate was itself anti-Semitic. Helin pointed out that an American Jewish man has been arrested in New York and charged with illegal organ sales, with no hint of Israeli involvement or of murder. Helin’s chain of reasoning? Since a Jew has been arrested, Israel can be accused of involvement without proof. Israel’s government can be accused of official involvement in murder without any evidence.

And this is how anti-Semitism has always worked, going back to the Middle Ages. A Jew is accused of a crime, falsely or otherwise, and all Jews are guilty. A Jew is accused of an illegal commercial transaction, and this justifies accusing the whole Jewish community of systematic murder.

If a Swede, a Muslim, or an African was accused of a crime, would that justify accusing an entire country or people of an even worse crime without evidence?

There’s a popular word for that today:

Racism.

This story is particularly personal for me. One hundred and twenty years ago, one of my ancestors was accused of ritual murder in Dolhinov, Russia, and a mob set out — unsuccessfully — to lynch him. A young Russian boy had been found killed, and my ancestor was accused of having done it using a “Jewish tool” — a barrel stuck through with nails for draining the blood to make matzoh.

Similarly, the Dutch story is an update to the old libels — Jews poisoning wells, worshiping money, and seeking world domination. And the British story is an update of the idea that the Jews pose as victims but are actually criminals equivalent to the worst evil in the world.

Anyone who cannot see the relationship of the historical ritual murder charge to its modern-day version is either not paying attention or is seeking the historical goal of anti-Semites: slandering the Jewish people in order to destroy them.

Some years ago, I did a study of the PLO and anti-Semitism The PLO Between Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism, which demonstrated how that group handled the issue. It simply ook traditional anti-Semitic themes and changed the word “Jews” to “Israel.” The Islamists of Hamas didn’t even do that.

For years, the main theme of Palestinian propaganda was generally:

The Jews are inferior — we will never make peace with them. We must defeat them and drive them into the sea.

Not surprisingly, this never had much appeal in the West. At some point, this was altered to the following framework:

The Israelis say we are inferior and that they will never make peace with us. They oppress our human rights and want to drive us into the sea.

57 Comments, 57 Threads

1.
dmgold, Israel

If this particular swedish newspaper cannot act in a responsible manner regarding the printing of outrageous bloodlibels against Israeli Jews it will lose its freedom to report first hand on current events where access is via the State of Israeli. The swedish government is acting in an arrogant and smug way hiding its swedish neo anti semitism behind the skirts of freedom of the press. Shame on the swedes and shame on the neo anti semites of the left.

I am tired of the Lefts obvious sympathies for Jihadists. I am not Jewish. I find myself astounded that every American Jew, still affiliated, has not fled the Democratic Party. The Lefts hatred of Western civilization utilizes the concept that the enemy of their enemy is their friend. Hence their ideological alliance with Jihadists. I subscibe to a similar tenet, the friend of my enemy is my enemy. The evil of the Left is rearing it’s head more and more openly, for all to see. The obvious Nazi like Anti-Semitic propaganda printed by the Left is chilling. That they have secured total political power in America, also, is chilling. Sides are being drawn, I’m with Israel.

As a swede i wish to apologize for the heinous article. As i see it does not
tell the truth about the character of the swedish people. The Aftonbladet newspaper has long been indulging in anti – semitic crap. Among it ´ s writers there a man by the name of Jan Myrdal who has defended loathsome “progressive” dictatorships like China under Chairman Mao and Åsa Linderborg has praised the anti – american rebels in Iraq as “freedom fighters” and supported suicide bombers. Other centre – right newspapers like ”Svenska Dagbladet” , ”Sydsvenska Dagbladet” and ”Expressen” has criticized the article even if they are misguided enough to believe freedom of speech should cover this article.

One note though, it was not Carl Bildt who shut down the web servers, it was the former Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds who had to resign over the outfall of this scandal. The interesting thing is that is that Carl Bildt
himself is by the Swedish left considered to be too soft on Israel.

Why not employ simple fact-checking? Because antisemites don’t want to let the facts get in the way of a ‘good’ story, i.e., a story that slams and slanders Israel and adds to its illegitimacy in the world’s eyes. The media is the tool of the left, and the so-called illegitimacy of Israel has been one of the left’s major tropes since 1967. Much if not most of the media aren’t interested in news, but in shaping the world to suit their ideology.

These stories follow along with the propaganda the Nazis published during the Reich. Following a playbook assembled by Goebbels the script was relentless and repetitive, and used the concept that people are more attuned to accepting the “big lie” than the small ones.

the swedes and the dutch have been overtaken by islam. they are puppets of the moslems and will “go” that way. this loathsome psycho jew hating diarrhea runs daily out of the arab press. speaking of which, what of our president and his peculiar islamic alliances and shrunken head silence in the face of such virulent blood libels. or maybe he likes it like that.

I think to these newspapers it does not matter whether it is true or not. It only matters to the ones accused and to those who long for this earth to be just and the truth wins out.

Rumors, lies, false accusations, and libel, are the weapons of deceivers, and all adults should know by now that the world is filled with those who have perfected the art of false witness.

How does it profit the people who put forth these lies? Well it allows them to hold onto their power just a little bit longer and it prevents Israel from claiming a place in the world just a little bit longer.

When has Israel and the Jews ever existed WITHOUT being under threat of annihilation? Someone with more knowledge than I might be able to answer that question, but as far as I know, the answer is never.

Eurabia is already a lost cause. Soon there will be no Jews in all of Europe. Only in the USA and Israel will a substantial remnant remain. Remember that a country with no Jews really isn’t much of a country. Everyone should read “The Israel Test” by George Gilder to understand why Eurabia and the Arabs have resurrected the old anti-Semitism.

Anser to Ergo : I agree, but it should be the business of the Israeli government to sue the daylights of Aftonbladet for defamation. As i see it
they have a solid case against the newspaper, as that they could point to the previous antisemitic writings in the newspaper, primarily in the cultural editorial pages.

As i see it, incidents like this only damages Sweden ‘ s reputation in other countries, not only in Israel of course, but in the United States
also of course….

Want to know how crazy some leftists truly are? Go to Haaretz.com and read their talkback on this subject. Antisemitism is really alive and well in the EU. You can thank UNWRA and Pallywood for a lot of the misconceptions regarding Israel and the biased reporting.

I assume many on this forum read other, including foreign publications thus by corollary they are supposedly well informed.

I am amazed by the absolute silence when British Jews organizing boycott against Israel, French Jews (A. Burg), German Jews, Jpost USA, Israeli Jews “Rape Israel” (Haaretz) all vomiting in unison their visceral, vile hatred against their own country.

The Swedish blood libel is more on the side of primitive antisemitism akin to medieval accusations…the article however in the Los Angeles Times – in which a prominent Univ. Prof. openly calling for the destruction of his own country where he lives, getting paid and having a social status – is ignored.

When similar, Jewish originated opinion pieces are daily occurrences in the media eliciting no harsh condemnation by anybody, the outrage for the Swedish article is rather hypocritical and manifestation of pure, fake indignation.

On a personal note, I don’t care what America enemies say because they are enemies; but when our own, The Joker bashing his own Homeland is real disgusting act.

Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported Sunday that Bostrom’s 2001 book Inshallah, which deals with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and reportedly included the allegations of organ harvesting, was financed – among other bodies – by the Swedish Foreign Ministry.

Of course Sweden can’t expect a world “unrest” like the one who killed 200 people following the publication of some cartoons, over a libelous publication in one of its “newspapers”. So it’s much easier to refuse the Jewish state’s request to issue a formal condemnation, under the false pretense of “freedom of speech”. And all the more so, given its demography.

Your PM is first and foremost accountable to you. If you think he’s damaging Sweden in any way, let him know.

Helin pointed out that an American Jewish man has been arrested in New York and charged with illegal organ sales, with no hint of Israeli involvement or of murder. Helin’s chain of reasoning? Since a Jew has been arrested, Israel can be accused of involvement without proof.

Lemme try some of that avant-garde logic:

O.J. Simpson is black, and killed a couple of people, therefor Barak Obama is a murderer.

With all due respect to Barry Rubin, mistaking Bildt for another Swedish minister is a fairly major error, especially considering that minister had to resign for what Rubin accuses Bildt of.
So, a corrected version of the article would show that the Swedish government indeed didn’t end up caving into Muslim demands about the cartoons. Sadly, that leaves the Israeli government now acting just like the offended Moslems did, they are childishly demanding the government intervene with a free press.

Sadly, that leaves the Israeli government now acting just like the offended Moslems did, they are childishly demanding the government intervene with a free press.

First of all, Sweden has no First Amendment, and secondly, even in the US, libel is actionable. This is libel, pure and simple. It may not be appropriate to deal with it diplomatically, but it most certainly should be the basis for a lawsuit.

Agreed with dave. The decision by the swedish government not to interfer or judge articles by the press or on the internet stems directly from the cartoon issue, where government shut down a semi-nazi page w the cartoons and got a furious response to it. WHat Israel has done so horribly wrong in ths case is twofold: At the same time as Lieberman, the foreign ministry went out on record and said that sweden had nazi-sympathies during WW2 and that this reminded him of this, Netanyahu *demanded* a comment from the PM and current leader of EU condemning this article. I dont know how you US folks would feel if someone demanded that your president do as they told him too while at the same time insulting the whole US nation. I know I would be pretty pissed off.

How about the names of these papers? The Swedish article is very poorly done, no clear cause and effect is demonstrated – just as poorly, therefore, as Rubin’s article, which is based on insinuation and guilt-by-association, and mentions no sources. I googled the Dutch words for “Jews” and “swine flu” – and came up with no such article, so I have no idea what paper he’s talking about. Aftonbladet, the Swedish paper, may be the country’s biggest, but what does that mean? It means “tabloid”, in Sweden as elsewhere – not quality.
Placing an obscene Nazi Dutch-language anti-semitic poster at the head of the article is therefore about as primitive as what is being attacked here.

Hey Commie, have you heard of the these two words?:1. Yevsektsiya and 2. Birobidjan?
I’ll help you.
From WIKI:
“Yevsektsiya” – was the Jewish section of the Soviet Communist party. Yevsektsiya members were people of Jewish origin, however, they were hostile to traditional Jewish culture and instead sought to assimilate Jews into the new Soviet society.

2.”Birobidjan” – “It is located on the Trans-Siberian railway, close to the border with the People’s Republic of China, in E. Siberia.
The very place where the “intelligent Communist Jewish people” deported their fellow non-Communist Jewish brethren as reward.”

The Commies however remained ensconced in the Heartland and enjoyed killing the KULAKS – and other Class Enemies.

Do you go too after the KULAKS? – Comrade? Under the leadership of the Joker?

Antisemitism has been around for over 2K years, as well as generalized bloody accusations like this. Trying to pin anti-semitism on a particular nation, group or class is junk. Before the Nazis, the Russians, especially Ukranians were the tops in that field.

The left is has always been a producer of abject economic failure and intellectualbankruptcy and is drawn to vileness and evil as surely as a moth is to a flame.
Socialism be it murderous national socialism in Hitler’s Germany, Russia’s wicked mutation of international socialsim or Sweden’s self-righteous hypocrisy laden middle way needs a scapegoat on which to vent its viciousness, angst, and bile. For far to many Euros anti-Semitism is an old tried and true ambulator for the mentally maimed of the Eurotrash left.

This should surprise no one. In America there is an entire group of people that are automatically assumed by “progressives” of being victims and in need of government largess simply by virtue of being born with dark skin. Likewise, anyone with white skin is automatically assumed of being a cross-burning KKK racist (unless they make huge contributions to the DNC and vote the straight Democrat Party ticket, in which case they might not be guilty).

The antisemitism that is engulfing Europe is coming to America and is being mainstreamed. All Jimmy Carter needs is a swastika and a German accent to complete his transition to full-blooded Nazi.

However, I don’t like the suggestion that all Europeans are in on this. For one thing, it is not true. For another, it isolates Europeans (of whatever political stripe) by lumping them in with modern-day Nazis. Not smart.

Scratch a Ukrainian Basher, and you find someone pushing the KGB Party Line.

Anyone who suggests the Ukrainians don’t have a history of anti Semitism is delusional or a lier, no left wing site can change history.
Interesting how some people here are justifying or even condoning anti Semitism; it’s like the frog in the pan who has not noticed the heat just keeps being turned up.

Old One
The mentally defective right wing Amero-trash, that you represent so well, has a history of anti-semitism too, so much for the old adage: “the pot calling the kettle black”, Try to write something a little more coherent and honest instead of stupid over-generalizations.

blackminorcapullets:
I guess your education must consist mainly of right wing talk radio and National Review authored tomes, where they posit about some mythical right wing Christian anti-Nazi resistance. Read about how Petluyrov and Makhno murdered over 100K Jews during the Russian Civil War then their type rose up again to assist the Nazis Einsatzgruppen in 1941 to kill another 500K.
Also, last fatal pogrom in Europe occured in Kielce Poland, not far from the Ukraine, and the Catholic Polish bigots who murdered the death camp survivors trying to reclaim their homes were NOT LEFTISTS either.
When I hear people on the right start calling leftists and Euros anti-semites and bigots, all I can say is that they should look at their own past before throwing stones.

Gee, Tom & Bob, I’m sorry you have such a low opinion of the Jews. That being said, another reason Jews don’t move to the right is that they don’t want to associate themselves with morons like you two.

Without the full understanding and in dept knowledge of the history of the Bolshevik revolution, the “Pale of settlement***” no opinion is credible. Solzhenitsyn gave an astute picture of that era in his monumental works, titled “Two Hundred Years Together”**. Unfortunately no English translation exists, only Russian, German and French editions for the inquisitive minds; –
======================================================
***Wiki: “The Pale of Settlement was the term given to a region of Imperial Russia, along its western border, in which permanent residence of Jews was allowed, and beyond which Jewish residence was generally prohibited.”

Thomas
No doubt, the Ukranians were far from unique in that area and times for naked anti-semitism and bigotry. The Czarist government and most of the Whites during the Civil War, contemptible, murderious treatment of Jews virtually insured almost any politically minded Jew was going to go left in those critical years, which is sad given the Red horrors.

Even in the US, it wasn’t until WF Buckley cleaned out most of the classic reationary bigots in hte 50s did the right even tolerate Jews. A lot of those types are still there, PB anyone. Some of them support Israel only because they hate Arabs more. After all, the left still has the bulk of all Jews worldwide, so implying that leftists are inherently anti-semitic is more than a lie, it’s plain silly. Antisemitism knows no political or national boundaries, but I would say that the right, with it’s greater emphasis on religion and heredity, is more succeptible.

A blood libel is a blood libel, and criticism or condemnation of someone or something engaging in it is not censorship and it is not a violation of freedom of the press. On the other hand, closing down an internet site for showing cartoons is exactly that. Why is it so difficult to understand the distinction?

As for USABruce’s question at #3, I asked myself that question repeatedly. More generally, why are Jews so enamored by Leftists that they are incapable of seeing how destructive those Leftists are to them and to everything else.

Yes. Media from all kinds of countries mixes up shit all the time. If it would involve a Swede the particular newspaper would be “anti-Swede”. Oh, my god, I think that would just kill me.

and for the record, it is not up to the Swedish government to interfer in what any media publishes. If the Israeli government want to file a lawsuit against Aftonbladet, it is more than welcome to do so in a Swedish court. This is how a REAL democracy works.

Anonymus: Although I agree with the main points of your both posts, you yourself betray your own bigotry and ignorance. You write: “.. the last pogrom of Jews occured in Kielce-Poland.” and “Catholic bigots murdered the the death camp survivors…”. Absoluely true! In every flock one will find a black sheep. No one has a monopoly either on nobility or barbarism. This is not a secret that there has been lots of anti-semitism in pre-war Poland, and there was also Jedwabne and Kielce.

Jedwabne occured under the very nose of a German military garrison stationning there. According to the prominent British historian, Norman Davies, who specialised in Polish history, the local Polish mob has been incited by the Germans to commit that heinous act. While absolutely inexcusable, those primitive alements that conducted that pogrom were acting in a revenge for the mass collaboration of the Jews with Bolsheviks, when the Soviets occupied that part of Poland. The mass collaboration of the Polish Jews with the Soviets is a public secret. I know that because a large chunk of my own extended family who were living in that part of Poland which is now in Belorussia, were deported to Siberia after having been denounce by their Jewish neighbours.

Equally, after the WW2 when Poland fell under the Soviet occupation again, the most brutal and genocidal elements in the so called Office For Security – a special branch of the Soviet NKVD, established after the WW2 in Poland were Polish and Russian Jews; Berman, Rozanski and Wolinska. That very Office For Security is crdited with murdering more than 50 000 Polish patriots.

So returning to my original thesis, no one has monopoly on barbarism or nobility.

Hi there Anonimus again! Writing in English, which I have taught entirely myself, is a bit hard, so I forgot about my main thesis. It concerns the pogrom in Kielce.

Kielce was established, directly after the WW2 had ended, as one of the main administrative centres and the headquaters of one of the strongest links in the command structure of the infamous and metioned by me previously, Office For Security because of the vicinity of the large forrested areas, where the last remains of anti-Soviets partisans were hiding.

The pogrom in Kielce occured under the very nose of the Ofice For Security with hundreds of its troops standing idly for more than 48 hours while the agitated mob was hunting and killing innocent Jews.

There is ABSOLUTELY no doubt that that tragic and unfortunate event was instigated by the Office For Security. The OFS’s leadership was determined to coopt the Jwish survives from Holocaust for the collaboration with the new Communist regime or force those reluctant to do so, to leave Poland.

I would also like to remaind you that the biggest exodus of Polish Jews took place after 1968, when they (among other many of my best friends) were forced out by the Commies in revenge for Israel tilting towards the US on one side but also for the Polish Jews very actice participation in the anti-communist underground movement.

So, as you see the history of Polish-Jewish relation is enormously complex. To learn more about that fascinating subject, I refer you to the excelent book “The God’s Playgrund – History Of Poland” by the above mentioned Norman Davis, who as a foreign researcher is much more objcetive in judging that coutry than many home-grown historians.

Regardless of the Russian pogroms and the revenge atrocities by the Jews during the Red Terror, the Bolshevik Jewish Antisemitism started much earlier and keeps on feeding itself until this day by the words of your Prophet, Karl Marx.

Karl Marx in the “On The Jewish Question shot the first salvo and no Polish, Russian or other, local Antisemitic outburst can explain the Leftist hatred against the Jews by the Jews in the West: the moniker “SELF-LOATHING” is borne out of this hate fest which is synonymous with your Leftist Democratic Party.

All Western Marxist oriented Societies – including Latin American ones – are virulently Antisemitic: no accident that the Swedish Soc.Dems put forth the “Israel snatches body parts theories”, the Brits organizing boycotts, and Chomsky along with other Jews leading the charge.

This thread about the present Antisemitism by the Bolshevik Democratic Party, distant and obscure historical events have minimal influence on what is going on today in our societies.

Words of wisdom for you: most Jews – you described them in your previous post #25 “‘Well y’see, Brucie, Jews are an intelligent people.” - who rabidly associated themselves with the Marxist totalitarianism eventually paid a heavy price after the collapse of the Bolshevik Proletarian Paradise.

“In 1929 the newspaper came under the control of the Kreuger family, when a majority of the shares was bought by Swedish Match, at that time the heart of Ivar Kreuger’s corporate empire. Aftonbladet was labelled “neutral”. In 1932 it backed Per Albin Hansson’s new Social Democratic government. Just a few years later it realigned with the Liberal Party and turned to advocate liberal politics. Heavily influenced by pro-German staff members, the newspaper supported Germany during World War II…”

I read this article and have more or less followed this tempest in a teacup with the goyisher press accusing Jews of atrocities.

This is not new. It is in the fine tradition of accusing Jews of killing Christian children to mix their blood in matzót, and it is no surprise that this comes from Jew-haters in Sweden.

If you stick your hand in a manure pile, what do you expect will be on it when you pull it out?

Bottom line: I’ll remember to boycott products from Sweden and treat Swedes as the Jew-hating trash they are. Let them prove to me that they are not haters of my people. The burden of proof is now on their shoulders.

There is no question in my mind that the article in the Swedish paper is a blood libel as there is no way to harvest and use the organs of a dead person.
I am worried however to reed many of the posts here which in some cases try in a roundabout way to justify anti-Semitism. To all of you here is something that may sound weird: The Jews are just people and like the rest of humanity, there are smart Jews, stupid Jews, good and bad Jews, there are leftist and rightist Jews and so forth. There is no reason good enough to bash the Jews as people just as there is no good reason to do it to Americans, Swedes etc.
The only thing Jews have in common is their religion and the fact that somehow they survived for thousands of years despite being constantly persecuted.
So all of you “historians” with “facts” from the past that Jews did that or the other; stop doing it, unless you are an anti-Semite, of course.

Europe= lost cause it seems.With the burden of fighting in Afghanistan on canada,australia,the US ,the Danes,and the british,europe it seems has already chosen to side with Islamists.Hmmm is that the sound of jack boots in Europe once again?Time will tell.Theres a difference between criticism (which Leftists cant handle) and outright hatred which Leftists seem to love.Sweden blood libel has been noted and filed to throw in their face in the future.

#26 Berlin
Try googling again. You may find this:
“Speaking to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf Saturday [8th August 2009], Desiree Rover said the virus is a conspiracy of pharmaceutical companies, intent on increasing their profits through the sale of swine flu tablet Tamiflu and decreasing the population by spreading the sometimes deadly strain. “Rover, 61, a ‘natural healer’ with no medical training, proposed the conspiracy can be traced to the Khazar Jews, a group who are believed to have converted 1,200 years ago. “De Telegraaf quoted Rover as saying descendants of the group are now “praying to another god; Lucifer, Satan or however you want to call him” and “are called Rockefeller, Rothschild, Brzezinski and Kissinger”.